Brazil Seeks to Extend Kyoto Protocol to 2020 Before Replacement

Brazil will seek to extend by eight years until 2020 the Kyoto Protocol targets that bind developed countries to cuts in greenhouse-gas emissions, before replacing them with a wider agreement.

“It’s important to keep this format alive so that in the future this may be used for countries to respond to the climate crisis,” Luiz Alberto Figueiredo, Brazil’s envoy to United Nations climate talks, told reporters today. “We should have a second commitment period that will end in 2020. Well before that, negotiations should be held on the next step.”